The owner of the Hollenbeck Funeral Home has pleaded guilty to allowing the premises to be used for the purpose of drug activity.

Steven Blomquist, 48, was arrested with his girlfriend and 15 other individuals in a November raid by officers of the Fulton County Drug Task Force who said the funeral home was doubling as a crack house.

Blomquist has pleaded guilty to one count of first degree criminal nuisance in Fulton County Court and was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison.

Blomquist has been in jail since the raid. His girlfriend, Linda A. Flood, 39, who lived with Blomquist in an apartment above the business, pleaded guilty in December to fifth degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. She was sentenced in January to two years in prison and one year of supervised release.

They had been indicted late last fall for third degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, first degree criminal nuisance, seventh degree criminal possession and endangering the welfare of a child. Her two daughters were among those present at the time of the raid.

Police said when they burst into the funeral home, several occupants began tossing crack into caskets. According to Fulton County district attorney Louise Sira, neighbors had been complaining of finding partly nude corpses in open view and finding people sleeping in some of the viewing rooms.

Police said that various quantities of drugs including four grams of crack cocaine and marijuana were recovered from inside caskets as well as in other locations including the embalming rooms, viewing areas and living quarters. Cash, crack pipes and knives were also confiscated.

SOURCE:  http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041506PrisonTime.html